Funeral
by RoxisAngel
Summary: Janine and her mother's funeral. Also Abe, because everybody wanted that.
1. Chapter 1

_This takes place sometime between _Frostbite_ and _Shadow Kiss_. Thank you to VegaIsTheBrightestStarInLyra for pointing out some errors!  
_

* * *

The mortuary was a soft orange color, Janine noticed. The walls and ceiling were, at least. Everything else was black – the people, furniture, the currently-open coffin.

The room was packed with mostly local dhampirs, so none of her group was noticed for a few moments in which they stood in the entryway and surveyed the scene. But then Janine's sister swooped down to them.

"Oh, Janine!" she cried, "It so good to finally see you again! I've missed you so much!"

Janine awkwardly patted her sister's back, knowing that her sister didn't really miss her – they two sisters had only been too glad for an excuse to lose contact with each other after Janine had graduated and left home.

"It'll be okay," she heard herself saying.

"Oh, is this your daughter?" Her sister's hand reached out to touch Lissa's shoulder, but twitched to Rose's at the last minute when she saw that Lissa was a Moroi. Janine could see Rose biting the inside of her cheek, but she didn't know if her daughter was trying not to laugh or holding back a rude remark. It didn't matter much – Janine knew her sister would interpret it as trying not to cry (even though Rose had probably never heard of her grandmother before now) and leave Rose alone.

Predictably, she turned back to Janine. "Do you have any pictures?" she asked, motioning to a billboard filled with pictures of their mother.

Janine nodded and handed over a few pictures that she hoped were unique. Her sister gladly took them and scuttled away.

"I can't believe her," Rose muttered. The comment was for Lissa's ears only, so Janine just listened, not saying anything. She had already warned Rose to be nice once and didn't want to do it again.

"That was... God," Lissa said, shaking her head, at a loss for words.

"Come on," Janine said, spotting a few nieces approaching. "Let's go find our seats."

Janine and Rose sat down in the section marked "Reserved for Family" while Lissa grabbed an aisle seat a few rows back. Guardian Belikov – Dimitri, Rose always called him – took the seat right behind Lissa.

Unfortunately, the nieces followed them. One of them sat on the edge of Rose's chair, put her arms around Rose's neck, and started to sob, practically sliding into Rose's lap. "Oh, I miss her so much," she cried. "She was the best grandma ever!"

This was reason one why Janine had been glad to lose contact with everyone – complete lack of personal space. Janine hadn't heard of the term "personal bubble" until she had gone to school.

"Jesus," Rose muttered after her cousin had left to go sob on someone else. She looked at Janine. "This explains some things," she said. Janine nodded, glad Rose understood, and then looked up front. Attendants were busy rearranging flowers so that they could close the coffin for the service. One of them came up to the podium to assure everyone that there would be time for a short viewing after the service.

The service was rather short and – at least to Janine – kind of funny. According to the minister, there were six children with two names and two grandchildren with six names. But at least he got the part about the great-grandchildren right.

"And now, an attendant will be passing around a microphone for anyone who wants to say any last words."

Janine's sister was the first to take it. Her piece was horrible – unrehearsed, she stumbled over the words and ended up crying all over the man who tried to take the microphone from her. A niece went next. She was much better than her mother – it was obvious she had practiced even though she was reading off of a piece of paper, and she warned the audience before she started that she had a backup incase she started crying. Her piece was about books and how her grandmother had inspired her to read more. Then she sat down and someone thrust the microphone into Janine's hands.

"My mother was very..." Janine found herself saying. Then her mind went blank. She hadn't planned on saying anything. "Persistent," she finished, pulling a word off the top of her head. Janine's memories of her mother being persistent were more annoying than pleasant, but nobody else knew that. She quickly passed the microphone to a man who had worked with her mother in the same office building and sat down.

When the time came, Janine found herself following Rose to the open coffin.

"Her lipstick looks horrible," Rose whispered. "Aren't they supposed to make it look natural?" Janine took a look and agreed. The sparkling cotton-candy pink was much too obvious, much too _there_.

"The hands are kind of messed up," Lissa whispered, coming up behind Rose. "Look." Then she realized that Janine was there and blushed, ducking her head. "I'm sorry," she said. Janine shrugged.

"You're just saying what everybody's thinking out loud."

It was true – the body's hands were supposed to be resting on each other on the stomach, but one of the hands – the right – looked wrong. The wrist was poking up, as if someone had come along after they had posed the body and had tried to hold the hand. Like the lipstick, it looked unnatural.

Rose looked behind then at the small line. "We should go," she said.

Guardian Belikov had been standing against the wall, watching everything. Now he came forward. "People are starting to leave," he said.

"Let's go," Janine said, speeding up her pace. She didn't want to socialize.

* * *

A few nephews showed up for the graveside service. Like Rose, they didn't care much about their grandmother (at least they knew who she was, though), so after the service Rose, Lissa, and the boys leaned against the back of Janine's rental car and people-watched, pointing out who looked like a mobster because their black suit and who looked like a celebrity. Originally, the four teenagers had been sitting on tombstones – or, in Lissa's case, leaning on one – but then a woman had yelled at them for being disrespectful to the dead so they moved over to the car.

Janine ended up next to Guardian Belikov near her sister's car.

"I feel kind of bad, Rose having to go to another funeral right after her friend's," Janine said. "She didn't even know this woman."

"She said yes so she could legitimately miss a few days of school," Belikov said.

"Then why's Lissa here?" Janine asked. "Why did they let her come?"

He almost smiled. "She's a very... persuasive person when she wants to be," he hinted. "And I think she came because she wants to make sure Rose is really okay about Mason."

"Oh."

Janine watched as the four teenagers walked over to another relative's grave.

"... swear that I left it here," she heard one of the boys say.

"Is it that over there?" the other boy asked, pointing at another grave. This one was decorated with a Christmas bear.

The teenagers went back to the car and huddled up, not planning Operation Steal Back the Christmas Bear as quietly as they should have. From what Janine could hear, it involved ninja rolls and the synchronizing of watches nobody owned. When Lissa came around to collect them, Janine and Dimitri both handed their watches over freely. Then Janine directed Lissa to a few people who would also lend their watches.

"I hope Rose doesn't act like this at my funeral," Janine said as her daughter ninja rolled behind a tombstone, oblivious to the dirt and grass stains that she was getting on her black dress.

"She won't," Dimitri said with a note of absolute conviction in his voice. "She likes you more than you think."

"Really?" Janine said, looking up at him suspiciously.

"She respects you, at least," he amended. "She still remembers that black eye you gave her."

Janine winced. "I _am_ sorry about that," she said.

"She knows."

Janine's sister came over to them. "Are you coming to the potluck?" she asked.

"No," Janine said. "We should get back to the hotel – most of my party's not used to the time change yet." Idly, Janine wondered where Rose and Lissa found the power to pull Operation Steal Back the Christmas Bear off as energetically as Rose's cousins. Janine wasn't dead on her feet, exactly – unlike Lissa and Rose, Janine simply had to get up extremely early rather than stay up late – but running around those two was out of the question. It was probably a teenager thing.

After the teenagers had replaced Christmas bear at the right grave and Rose and Lissa were in the back seat, already leaning against each other and dozing, Janine looked back over the cemetery. A figure was making its way across the lumpy grass towards her, his two companions following at a respectful distance.

Janine turned to Dimitri, who was sitting in the driver's seat, waiting for her to get into the car. "Do you think that you could take them back to the hotel by yourself?" she asked.

"What is it?" he asked, turning his head to look in the direction she had been gazing.

"It's nothing," Janine said quickly. "I just want to talk to him for a minute. I can take a taxi home." Mentally, she looked through her purse, trying to remember if she had enough pounds. Not that she'd be paying.

"Okay," Dimitri said, keeping his curiosity invisible.

Janine straightened up, stepped back, and then watched the car drive away. Then she turned to the figure and smiled up at him. "Hello, Abe," she said.


	2. Chapter 2

_Y'all have Rozka4eva to thank for this. She had the most persuading comment. _

_Also, oh Lordy – my first (and possibly only) M-rated fanfic is about Rose's _parents_._

* * *

"How much time do you get off?" Abe asked. He drew invisible designs along her spine with his fingertips as he spoke, so Janine couldn't help but melt onto his chest a little before pulling herself together and answering.

"A week," she said. "Somebody said I was 'really close' to my mother–" She paused and turned her head to look up at him suspiciously. Abe looked pleasantly surprised at the news, but there was nothing in his expression to give him away. "–so I get a week off, and it doesn't cut into my vacation time at all."

Not that it mattered – by now, she probably had a good seven months off. She had worked for fifteen years (excluding her maternity leave and the four years she spent taking care of Rose), with two weeks per year, which meant... thirty weeks off. Jesus. And she liked these stupid little rendezvous with Abe too much to actually use any of that time off, even though she did trust her sub. Even though she always felt slightly used after them, because all they did was hook up. There were no dates, not anymore. Whenever the subject was brought up, someone – usually her – refused. And she had no one to blame for it but herself. But maybe something would change this time.

"Close to your mother," Abe said, looking up at the ceiling and smiling at the absurdity. His hands moved up to her auburn hair and Janine had to slide off him. His guardians were back, probably getting ready for bed because of the late hour... She liked them, especially Pavel, too much to make them leave in their pajamas. Funny how hired help was usually better than those who were randomly assigned to you by a computer. Maybe the royals should personally pick out their guardians. Of course, then revolts would happen so much more often, and Moroi history was bloodstained enough.

"How long are _you_ staying here?" Janine asked, propping herself up on her elbows and scooting up so she was closer to his head.

"I can stay for a week," Abe said, turning his smile, now no longer just amused, on her. "There's nothing that can't wait."

Janine frowned and thumped her fist on his chest, as lightly as she could while still getting the point across. "Now something's going to come up," she said, pulling her lips into a pout. She turned away, apparently to upset to even _look_ at him anymore, and looked over the edge of the bed. Her clothes were too far away – all the way over by the desk, where they'd been dropped several hours ago. Her underwear was closer than the rest, but even that was down on the floor by the bottom of the bed.

She didn't want to leave, but getting up and stomping over to the window would be much less effective if she was naked. Of course, if she got dressed, she'd probably just lose her clothes all over again. Besides – something might get ripped.

She sighed and looked at the clock, which was the only light in the room, asides from what came in through the large bay windows. What she saw in the glowing red letters made her stomach drop, effectively killing her libido.

"I really have to go," she said, moving to get up. "I'm supposed to be the night shift, and Belikov..." He'd probably still be up, not entirely trusting Rose to stay awake, even after her nap in the car. Besides, she was still a novice and he'd be held responsible if something happened on her watch.

"I heard a funny rumor about him and Rose," Abe said, sitting up and watching Janine scurry around for her clothes, putting them on quickly.

Janine froze, her fingers still ineffectively trying to get the clasp on her bra again and again. "What did you hear?" she asked. She'd noticed that Belikov had a strangely protective air about him whenever Rose was around, and paired with how he talked about her – fondly, with a little smile on his lips whenever he said her name – Janine had started to suspect that maybe they were a little more than just friends. Even if they had never acted on their feelings (and it was obvious Rose had a crush on him – he was good looking and older than her, which was usually good enough for a teenage girl), if she had proof...

"Abe, what did you hear?" Janine turned around to glare at him.

He had on That Look – the look that said he wasn't sure if he should let her go and was wondering if he could get away with using compulsion on her. She could almost read his thoughts – they were so obviously scrawling themselves across his face. (They had also been in this situation before, although Janine had been mad about something else entirely.) He knew her temper, knew she had a loaded gun (although it wasn't yet on her person). He was good enough at compulsion to get away with it – he could "talk her out of it" by still letting her be angry, but at the same time he could make her see that it wasn't worth it. In this case, Belikov was too good to lose. He could just be transferred, and if Janine talked to him – talked, nothing else – maybe she could convince him that it would be best if he just asked to be assigned to someone else. He wouldn't get a mark on his record or anything. Hell, he might even agree with her that he was a bastard – he was so very _good_, so ruled by his conscious...

"Ibrahim, what did you hear?" Janine asked, using his proper name for once.

"It's really nothing," he said, shifting and pulling the covers over himself so she couldn't see how much the expression her face was terrifying him. "Just kind of a funny story..."

"Ibrahim Mazur! Will you just _tell me already?_" Finally, Janine's fingers stopped trying to clasp her bra and just stayed where they were, pulling it too tight, the hooks digging in to her right thumb yet threatening to slip off at the same time.

"Well, supposedly he helped her get the keys to the pool so everyone could dye it purple on Senior Skip Day. It is unclear at the moment if he helped with anything else," Abe said, speaking so quickly that some of the words ran together. Sometimes it amazed Janine that she could scare him so much. She had obviously inherited The Look from her grandmother and didn't discriminate on who she used it on – anyone from Strigoi to the love of her life to her own daughter was fair game, and she used it no matter how upset she was.

Janine picked up her socks, folded them up, and threw them at him as revenge for the anticlimactic story. They weren't vital for the cab ride home, not like her shirt or pants or shoes were. Then she started pulling on her clothes.

"What about this?" Abe asked when she was nearly dressed, just buttoning her coat. In his hand was her nazar, a replacement he had given her after realizing she had given the original to Rose during Christmas. This one was in varying shades of red, but other than that, it looked identical to the blue one Rose now wore. Sometimes Janine wondered if she should switch them – red wasn't exactly her color, and would suit Rose much better.

"Give it to me," Janine said, holding out her hand, waiting for him to toss it to her. But Abe shook his head, swinging the necklace back and forth, not playing fair. He knew she wouldn't just leave without it. During the few weeks she'd been without her nazar, she'd had nightmares. It was more then just a pendant that warded against the evil eye to her.

She walked over to snatch it.

Abe was fast, though, dropping the necklace before she had even reached for it, pulling her close and kissing her, somehow managing to get his hands under her clothes, thumbs under her bra, pushing himself against her so hard that she couldn't help but stagger a bit – she was a lot smaller than him – all in a moment. Janine gave in, let him unhook her bra again and managed to get her boots off before pushing him back and climbing on top of him. She worked on getting her coat and shirt off – kind of hard when they were pressing so closely together, but she managed – and Abe did her pants.

"What about Pavel and–?" she managed to gasp as his hands went up her legs again, fingers skimming over her thighs lightly, making her shiver.

"Shower," Abe interrupted, dropping her panties on the floor. "Let's go."


End file.
